MarkEvanLim_LitComics

This week’s assignment was to read Craig Thompson’s graphic novel, Blankets. Off the bat I found this novel to be very similar to my artistic style and what kind of art I enjoy reading. Through his writing style and his illustrations, I can really feel Thompson’s emotions and trials and tribulations as the he makes the reader embark on with this character. Like discussed in class, his past emotions and life events really shine through in this novel as we get glimpse into his life.  The novel also does a good job of heightening reality and making the world it takes place familiar yet fantastical that I greatly appreciated. In terms of themes, Blankets addresses the reality of a first love, a discovery of religion. With such broad and big topics, Thompson is able to capture these moments into panels that are enjoyable to read and look at for hours – while telling a compelling story. The main character, Craig is a Strict Catholic, due to his upbringing and serves as t...

This week we watched an interview with Stan Lee and Will Eisner. The interview addressed the making and evolution of comics. Eisner is a comic veteran who has delved further into pushing the format of the graphic novel. Lee on the other hand was more adept at the comic format, constantly praised and shared how he felt the graphic novel had such a profound impact on comics. Additionally Eisner further emphasized that the graphic novel is not catered to the mass public. I found it interesting that while both interviewers were using different formats, they collectively addressed the controversial issues on how some feel the graphic novel format is hurting the face of comics. Eisner equated it to a drug dealer going to schools with comics. Lastly, Eisner talks about how the comic format is the only medium where you have complete control over ever aspect -  he draws to bring you into the story. 

Up to this point, comics have always been an after thought when it came to how it was made and the different formats presented. Formats such as the long form and the different techniques the artist used to leverage the audience's responses. One example would be last week when looking at the Tarzan comics. Every comic page was a vignette into his life and adventures in the jungle. It helped make it easy for people to pick up at any page and see what their swinging-jungle-hero was up to. On top of the weekly independent stories, there were more macro stories they spanned the entire issue that were published on certain days of the week, like a Saturday. This was a smart choice as it kept the more dedicated readers more engaged and created a fanbase in following issues. Another aspect of creating comics is leveraging the audiences is the use of cinematography. Principles like rules of third for good composition, leading the eye to the main focus of a panel, and cut...

This week's assignment was to look through a Smithsonian collection of newspaper comics. I was really drawn to Dot Dash for it's style and narrative. The authors ability to guide readers through the world in the funniest way possible really drew me into the world, additionally, it really helped guide me towards finding a style I could implement in my own comic I am currently working on. The absence of dialogue also really intrigued me and pushed my own work to try and be as clear as possible with my staging and posing of characters - which Dot Dash was a master of doing. I loved how each strip was a vignette of sorts into their world with each of them being independent with each other. With these drawings, Dot Dash comics help invoke a sense of whimsy while being compelling as a story narrative. You don't get distracted and every panel guides you through the story.

This week, we were tasked to read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.I was very interested in how he presented a lot of concepts we are familiar with but in the context of comics, are very different - particularly Icons. An Icon is to represent an idea and the similar word, symbol was defined as one category of icons. The meaning of an icon in the comic-world can be fluid and variable in terms of the context such as words are nothing more than icons but put in a context of a book, can represent something more. One of my favorite examples McCloud uses is when using a face, as its stripped of its details and reduced to nothing more than a contour drawing, the idea or ICON still holds up. Also discussed in this book is the basic rules of cinematography - which was my favorite  part. Maintaining screen direction, knowing when to cut, creating suspense were all tools highlighted as ways to have a compelling comic. I could not help but draw a correlation between comics and sto...

This week we were tasked to look at Shaun Tan's The Arrival. This story is a perfect example of a comic with a compelling story that visually guides you through the narrative without words. The story follows an immigrant who leaves his family for a new place to call home - experiencing trials and tribulations along the way.  The presentation of the comic stood out to me for the most part as it had a very organic  feel to it, using soft charcoal and light washes of color to add to the tone of the narrative. I say organic as we could see the fine grains and smudges in some panels - making it look old and vintage, like a scrapbook. Compositionally, The Arrival uses a lot of well composed shots to "plus" a scene and help further set the mood of the scene. Shaun also used various different types of shots to emphasize where our focal point is like a character or an action. I think Shaun did a great job visualizing his story of immigrating to Australia to a broad audien...

Image 1: The first image struck me as something of the magical with a gypsy trying to impress people in the town. Possibly because no one cared for her performance, all that was left was a chicken as an audience so we performed to it. Her performance was so good that the chicken laid an egg Image 2: The chicken was actually a man trapped under a spell and had fallen in love with the gypsy, he visited her that night hoping to be able to introduce himself but she was asleep Image 3: I am not sure how to interpret this image but it has a feeling of contrasting opinions and a possible argument, it could be that the man had another enemy under the same spell and had fallen in love with the same girl Image 4: In a battle for the girl, she ended up dying and the two men laid shocked in what they had done Image 5: Going back up to the ladies room, the men realized there was another man under the same spell that had killed their lover's mother Image 6: The Chicken men...